HSE took nine months to acknowledge report

IT TOOK the office of the chief executive of the Health Service Executive some nine months and three reminders to acknowledge receipt of a major report into neurological conditions, although a number of senior HSE managers has participated in the review, it has emerged.

Acknowledgment of the report was sought by some medical specialists working in neurology services in the Republic.

The HSE has now referred the neuroscience report, the most comprehensive ever compiled, for external review abroad.

Prof Tim Lynch, consultant neurologist at the Mater hospital in Dublin and a key member of the national steering group that produced the report, said yesterday patients’ health was being compromised because standards in neurology were “not up to par”.

“The health of patients with neurological conditions is being adversely affected by a failure to deal with HSE and Department of Heath bureaucracy.”

While the Health Information and Quality Agency was important in setting standards, it would never be able to assess these standards if the resources were not made available to ensure adequate services were put in place, Prof Lynch told The Irish Times.

Commenting on the decision to send the report for “stress testing” abroad, he said: “I find it extraordinary that the HSE would rely on an external review. It is an insult not to trust our own healthcare professionals, most of whom have trained abroad and brought a wealth of experience to the review.” A steering group presented its final report in December 2007, but an initial meeting with the National Hospitals Office did not take place until late September last year, he said.

Prof Lynch said he would be happy to take a 10 per cent cut in salary if the money saved went directly to neurology patient services at the Mater hospital.